Quick Hits, Vol. 63 (Lana Del Rey, Chris Cornell, Ryan Adams, Big Grams)

Hot Topic: An interesting editorial asks the question of whether the South Ruined Hip Hop, and while the title gets the question wrong, the discussion is interesting and points to the issues I have with most rap these days. I don't think it is all of the south that has ruined hip hop, I agree that you can direct that ire directly at Atlanta. The quote that sealed the deal for me, realizing that other people are hearing what I am hearing, was noting that the charts are now dominated by "rap songs with heavy melodies and light lyricism." And it sounds like the reason for the downfall of the good rap sound is that there is some sort of new payola scheme with the Coalition DJs in Atlanta, who get paid to play a certain song in the strip clubs, and then that springboard launches those new songs into the charts. And the rest of us have to suffer through jenky ATL stripper music instead of something with smart lyrics and a good beat.  Long live Ice Cube.


Lana Del Rey - Honeymoon.  I'm almost a little disappointed in myself, because I don't full-on detest this music.  Here is my musical taste card, you can take it back.  Well, maybe just cut a corner off and give it back.  It is a super weird album, all breathy vocals and extremely minimal backing music. Like a dark lounge act where the singer's mic is cranked and the rest of the band is located behind a curtain.  The soundtrack to a dark Lynch film scored by Trent Reznor and Chris Isaak.  Or maybe just someone sitting alone and sadly singing to herself.  I'd rather listen to something with a great bassline any day of the week, but I've actually found myself drawn to the minimalist sound and pretty voice.  Why is this happening to me?  I've lost my way, friends.  Maybe the most "mainstream" of the tracks would be "High by the Beach," because it opens up after the basic vocals and organ to a trappy bass line.

34.6 million freaking views of that video.  Criminy.  And BTDubs, that mega-alien-melter-2000 gun could not have fit in that guitar case.  Boom!  Music Video Truther!  The rest of the album has very little of that type of pop sense, much more sleepy, languid, sensual...  But I liked hearing it!  I need to go listen to some metal or something.

Chris Cornell - Higher Truth.  Soundgarden was the bomb back in my high school days. Couldn't get enough of them for a while.  Saw them play live a few times and just loved it.  I still dig their first three albums (except for Spoonman, bluuuurg, that song is terrible). I spent a lot of time darkly brooding over "Fell on Black Days," "The Day I Tried to Live," "4th of July," and "Like Suicide" and imagining how important my deep understanding and appreciation for those songs was. But I didn't stick around for the later albums, by then I had lost interest and was in college braying Robert Earl Keen at the top of my lungs.

I've given this album a lot of listens, and while I still like Cornell's voice, used to great effect on these songs, this music is generically uninteresting.  He needs to bring the Audioslave or Soundgarden pain.  But because I am doing this for you, fair reader, I present to you the most popular song off the album, "Nearly Forgot My Broken Heart."

Cool sound in the song. That is probably the best song on the album - none go back to the sludge grunge of old Soundgarden.  A lot of the other songs are kind of goofy sounding in comparison.  I won't keep this album around.

Ryan Adams - 1989.  The cover album of the year, and kind of a cool experiment.  People talk about how great Taylor Swift's songwriting is, so this puts those lyrics front and center in (mostly) minimal arrangements and Adam's lovely tenor.  It is great.  Both of my daughters are in full-on obsession mode with TayTay, so it has been fun to play them songs from this album and see them recognize the song without all of the pop trappings of the originals. "Bad Blood" is probably the best one, although I'm liking the entire album.

I hope that Adams keeps the rights to remake all TayTay albums in the future for all time. My worry is that her next album will have crappy people tripping over themselves to re-create this magic and we'll end up with the R. Kelly version, the Nickelback version, the Brayleigh from "16 and Pregnant" version, and the Nick Lachey version to wade through.

Big Grams - Big Grams.  A collaboration between Phantogram and Big Boi (of Outkast) that is a really fun disc.  I listened to Phantogram for the 2014 ACL Fest preview, and was intrigued.  I never went and saw them, but after listening to this album I'm down to give it a try.  Big Boi is smooth as hell, and the music and verses by the Phantogram singer (Sarah Barthel) are actually good too.  They have one track with Skrillex that is pretty sweet, and then another with Run the Jewels (which is a perfect match), but my favorite track is the album opener, "Run for your Life."  Unfortunately, that one doesn't have a video, so here is the most listened-to track, "Fell into the Sun."

The Skrillex track, "Drum Machine" is also pretty sweet.  Fun collabo.  Go check it out.